Here is a translation of the first part of a speech given today by
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone at the presentation
of a book by Andrea Tornielli, "Pio XII: Un Uomo Sul Trono di Pietro"
(Pius XII: A Man on the Throne of Peter).

Parts 2 and 3 of the speech will be published on Wednesday and
Thursday.

* * *

1. The "Black Legend"

For decades now the figure of Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, has
been at the center of some volatile polemics. The Roman Pontiff who
guided the Church through the terrible years of the Second World War and
the Cold War is the victim of a "black legend," which has proved
difficult to combat even though the documents and testimonies have amply
shown its complete inconsistency.

One of the unpleasant "secondary" consequences, so to speak, of this
black legend

that falsely portrays Pope Pacelli as indulgent toward Nazism and
indifferent to the fate of the victims of persecution

has been to sideline the extraordinary teaching of this Pope who was a
precursor of Vatican II.

As has happened with the figures of two other Popes of the same name

Blessed Pius IX, who is discussed only in relation to topics linked to
the politics of the Risorgimento, and St. Pius X, often only remembered
for his strenuous battle against modernism

there is the risk that the pontificate of Pacelli will be reduced to his
supposed "silences."

2. The Pastoral Activity of Pius XII

I am here this evening, therefore, to give a brief testimony to a man
of the Church, who, by his personal holiness, shines as a luminous
witness of the Catholic priesthood and of the papacy.

It is not as though I have not already read many interesting essays
on the figure and work of Pope Pius XII, from the well-known "Actes et
Documents du Saint Siθge," to the brief biographies of Nazareno
Padellaro, Sister Marchione, and Father Pierre Blet, among the first
ones that come to mind.

There are also the "wartime addresses" of Pope Pacelli, which, if you
would like to read them, are available in an electronic format. Even
today I find these speeches quite interesting for their doctrine,
pastoral inspiration, literary sophistication; they are perforce human
and civil.

All in all, I already knew not a little about the man called the
"Pastor Angelicus" and "Defensor Civitatis." We must nevertheless be
grateful to Dr. Tornielli who, in this massive and well-documented
biography, drawing from much unpublished material, restores for us the
greatness and completeness of the figure of Pius XII.

He allows us to delve into his humanity, he allows us to rediscover
his teaching. He brings again to our minds, for example, his encyclical
on the liturgy, his reform of the rites of Holy Week, the great
preparatory work that would flow into the conciliar liturgical reform.

Pius XII opened up the application of the historical-critical method
to sacred Scriptures, and in the encyclical "Divino Afflante Spiritu,"
established the doctrinal norms for the study of sacred Scripture,
emphasizing the importance of its role in Christian life.

It is the same Pope Pacelli who, in the encyclical "Humani Generis,"
takes evolutionary theory into consideration, albeit with care. Pius XII
also gave notable impetus to missionary activity with the encyclicals "Evangelii
Praecones," 1951, and "Fidei Donum," 1957

this year is its 50th anniversary

highlighting the Church's duty to proclaim the Gospel to the nations, as
Vatican II would amply reaffirm.

The Pope refused to identify Christianity with Western culture or
with a particular political system. There is more. Pius XII is still the
Pope who gave the most room to women in his canonizations and
beatifications: 54.4% of canonizations and 62.5% of beatifications.

Indeed, this Pontiff spoke often about women's rights, affirming, in
a 1957 radio message to a congress of the Italian Center for Women, for
example, that women are called to "resolute action" even in the
political and judiciary fields.

3. Unjust Accusations

These are only examples that show how much there is to discover, or
rather, to rediscover, in the teaching of the Servant of God Eugenio
Pacelli.

I was struck by the many allusions present in Tornielli's book, from
which emerge both the lucidity and the wisdom of the future Pontiff in
the years that he was papal nuncio, first in Munich and then in Berlin,
along with many traits of his humanity.

Thanks to the unedited correspondence with his brother Francesco, we
are made aware of some clear judgments that he made on the nascent
National Socialist movement and the great and grave interior drama he
lived as Pope in regard to the attitude to maintain in the face of the
Nazi persecution during the war.

Pius XII spoke of it several times in the course of his radio
messages 
and so it is completely out of place to speak of his "silences"

choosing a prudent approach. In regard to the "silences," I happily
advert to a well-documented article of professor Gian Maria Vian
entitled "Il Silenzio Pio XII: alle origini della leggenda nera" (The
Silence of Pius XII: At the Origins of the Black Legend), which was
published in 2004 in the journal Archivum Historiae Pontificiae.

In this article Vian says, among other things, that the first to ask
about the "silences of Pius XII" was the French Catholic philosopher
Emmanuel Mounier in 1939, just a few weeks after the election of the
Supreme Pontiff and in relation to Italian aggression in Albania.

A bitter polemic, of Soviet and communist origin

and, as we shall see, revived by certain exponents of the Russian
Orthodox Church

grafted itself onto these questions. Rolf Hochhuth, author of "The
Deputy," the play that contributed to the creation of the black legend
against Pius XII, has in a recent interview defined Pope Pacelli as a
"demonic wimp," while there are historians who only promote anti-Pius
XII research and even call those who do not think as they do and dare to
propose a different view on these matters "The Pacelli Brigade."

It is impossible not to denounce this attack on good sense and reason
that is often perpetrated on the pages of the newspapers.

"He Had Before
Him a World in Thrall to Violent and Irrational Passions"

VATICAN CITY, 6 JUNE 2007 (ZENIT)

Here is a translation of the second part of a speech given Tuesday by
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone at the presentation
of a book by Andrea Tornielli, "Pio XII: Un Uomo Sul Trono di Pietro"
(Pius XII: A Man on the Throne of Peter).

Part 1 was published Tuesday. Part 3 will be published on Thursday.

* * *

4. A Very Precise Historical Period

It seems useful to me to underscore how Tornielli's book calls our
attention again to some things already known by serious historians. I
think that this is one of the valuable points about the volume that we
are discussing here: It takes account of the difficult times in which
Pope Pacelli lived, the Pope whose voice did not enjoy the favor of the
powers that be during World War II or during the succeeding period in
which the opposing political blocs faced off against each other. How
many times did Vatican Radio "not have the requisite electricity" to
make the Pontiff's voice heard; how many times was there "a scarcity of
paper" to reproduce his thoughts and uncomfortable teachings; how many
times did some accident cause issues of L'Osservatore Romano to be
"lost," 
issues that carried clarifications, updates, political notes ...

Nevertheless, today, thanks to modern means, those sources have been
amply reproduced and been made available. Dr. Tornielli has sought them
out and found them and the great body of notes in his book is a
testimony to them.

At this moment I would like to draw your attention to an important
period. The figure and work of Pius XII, praised and thanked before,
during and immediately after World War II, began to be scrutinized by
different eyes during a very precise historical period, from August 1946
to October 1948. After "the persecutions of a fanatical anti-Semitism
that were unleashed against the Jewish people" [Allocution of August 3,
1946], the desire of the tortured people of Israel to have their own
country, their own secure refuge, was understandable.

But it was equally understandable that those people who already lived in
Palestine also had rights and expected respect, attention, justice and
protection. The newspapers of the times provided ample coverage of the
tension that was beginning to manifest itself in that region, but
because they did not wish to consider the reasoning and proposals of
Pius XII, they began to take positions some on one side, some on
another, and thereby transformed the Pope's reflection

that was attentive to the criteria of justice, equity, respect, and
legality and developed in an articulate way

into ideology.

Pius XII was not only the Pope of the Second World War, but a pastor
who, from March 2, 1939, to October 9, 1958, had before him a world in
thrall to violent and irrational passions. From that moment forward,
there began to take shape an incomprehensible accusation against the
Pope, namely, that he did not intervene as he should have on behalf of
the persecuted Jewish people.

In this connection it seems to me important to recognize that, in any
case, those who are free of ideological designs and are lovers of the
truth, are well disposed to more deeply understand, in complete
sincerity, a long, fruitful, and to my mind heroic, papacy. An example
of this is the recent change of attitude at the great sanctuary that is
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to reconsider the figure and work of Pope
Pacelli, not from a polemical perspective but from a historically
objective angle. It is a fervent wish that such publicly manifested
goodwill will have an adequate follow-up.

5. The Duty of Charity Toward All

June 2, 1943, on the occasion of the feast of St. Eugene, Pius XII
publicly expounded the reasons for his attitude. First of all, Pope
Pacelli speaks again of the Jewish people: "The rulers of nations must
not forget that he who 'carries the sword'

to use the language of sacred Scripture

cannot decide the life and death of men except in accord with the law of
God, from whom all authority comes."

"You cannot expect us," Pius XII continues, "here to recount point for
point all that we have tried to procure and accomplish to mitigate their
sufferings, to better their moral and juridical condition, to safeguard
their inalienable religious rights, to bring help in their sufferings
and necessities. Every word to this end that we addressed to the
competent authorities as well as each of our public allusions had to be
weighed and measured by us in the very interest of those who were
suffering, so that we should not unwittingly make their situation more
grave and unbearable. Unfortunately, the visibly obtained improvements
do not correspond to the maternal solicitude of the Church on behalf of
these particular groups that are subjected to the most bitter
misfortunes, and the Vicar, [who] asking only for compassion and a
return to elementary norms of law and humanity, has found himself, at
times, before doors that no key could open."

Here, in the middle of 1943, we find revealed the reason for the
prudence with which Pacelli conducted himself in public denouncements:
"in the very interest of those who were suffering, so that we should not
unwittingly make their situation more grave and unbearable."

These are words that to me seem to be echoed in the brief address given
by Paul VI on September 12, 1964, at the catacombs of Santa Domitilla.
On that occasion Pope Montini said: "The Holy See abstains from more
frequently and vehemently raising its legitimate voice in protest and
outrage, not because it ignores or neglects the reality of what is
happening, but out of Christian patience and so as not to provoke worse
evils."

In the middle of the 1960s, Paul VI was referring to the countries
behind the Iron Curtain, governed by totalitarian communism. He, who was
a close collaborator of Cardinal Pacelli and of Pope Pius XII, thus
adduces the same reasons.

Popes do not speak with the idea of pre-constituting a favorable image
for future ages. They know that the fate of millions of Christians can
at times depend on their every word; they have at heart the fate of men
and women of flesh and blood, not the applause of historians.

Robert Kempner, a Jewish lawyer and public official at the Nuremberg
trials, wrote in 1964, after the appearance of Hochhuth's "The Deputy":
"Any propagandistic position that the Church would have taken against
Hitler's government would have not only provoked suicide ... but it
would have hastened the execution of still more Jews and priests."

Here is a translation of the final part of a speech given Tuesday by
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. He gave it at the
presentation of a book by Andrea Tornielli, "Pio XII: Un Uomo Sul Trono
di Pietro" (Pius XII: A Man on the Throne of Peter).

Parts 1 and 2 were published Tuesday and Wednesday.

* * *

6. "Action, Not Lamentation, is the Precept of the Hour"

Having said this, after having looked at the 11 volumes

in 12 tomes

of the "Actes et Documents du Saint Siθge" that cover the Second World
War, after having read dozens of folders with hundreds of documents on
the thoughts and actions of the Apostolic See during that conflict, one
gets a taste of the violent and biased polemics

countless volumes, full of violent and false ideology.

I think that the "Actes," printed by order of Paul VI

who served as undersecretary of state in the terrible period of
1939-1945, could be usefully completed by the documents that fall under
the archival heading of "Ecclesiastical States," which include documents
regarding the obligation of the Holy See and the Catholic Church to take
charge of the duty of charity toward all.

It is an area of the archive that has not been sufficiently explored,
given that we are dealing here with thousands of personal cases. The
smallest state in the world, neutral in the absolute sense, listened to
each one individually, acknowledging every voice that asked for help or
an audience. Unfortunately, this documentation is unavailable because it
is not organized.

It would be nice if, with the help of some charitable foundation, these
documents conserved by the archives of the Holy See could be catalogued
in a short period of time! The directive that Pope Pius XII gave in 1942
on the radio, in the press, and through diplomatic channels was clear.
In the tragic year of 1942 he told everyone: "Action, not lamentation,
is the precept of the hour."

The wisdom of this affirmation is testified to by a myriad of documents:
diplomatic notes, urgent consistories, specific instructions

to Cardinal Bertram, to Cardinal Schuster, etc., etc., etc.

to do what was possible to save people, preserving the neutrality of the
Holy See.

This neutrality allowed the Pope to save not only Europeans but other
prisoners as well. I am thinking of the awful situation in Poland and
the humanitarian interventions in Southeast Asia. Pius XII never signed
circulars or proclamations. His instructions were given verbally. And
bishops, priests, religious, and lay people all understood what had to
be done. The countless audience papers with the comments of Cardinals
Maglione and Tardini, among other things, were testimony to this. Then
the protests or the rejections of the Holy See's humanitarian requests
would arrive.

7. Denounce or Act?

Allow me to recount a little episode that took place in the Vatican in
October 1943. At the time, besides the Papal Gendarmes

about 150 persons

and the Swiss Guard

about 110 persons

there was also the Palatine Guard. To protect the 300 or so people of
the Vatican and its extraterritorial properties then, there were 575
Palatine Guards. Well, the secretary of state asked the occupying power
if the Palatine Guard could enlist another 4,425 people. The Jewish
ghetto was nearby

The editors of "Actes et Documents" could not print all the thousands of
personal cases. The Pope, at the time, had other priorities: He could
not make his "wishes" known but wanted to act, within the limits imposed
by the circumstances, according to his clear program.

For honest people some legitimate questions arise: When did Pius XII
meet with Mussolini? He met him in 1932 as cardinal secretary of state
but as Pope, never! When did Cardinal Pacelli meet with Hitler? Never!
When did the Pope meet with Mussolini and Hitler together? Never! If
that never happened, if two states did not consider talking with the
Pope, what should the Pontiff himself do: denounce through declarations
or act?

Pius XII chose the second course, which is testified to by many Jewish
sources throughout Europe. Perhaps we should provide a copy of these
abundant expressions of gratitude and esteem by Jews for the human and
spiritual ministry of this great Pope. The book, which we can read
today, adds another plug not only for the figure of a great Pontiff, but
also for the whole silent but effective work of the Church during the
life of a shepherd that passed through the storms of two world conflicts

Pacelli was nuncio to Bavaria from 1917

and the tragic construction of the Iron Curtain, behind which millions
of children of God lost their lives. Heir to the Church of the Apostles,
the Church of Pius XII continued to work not only by means of a
prophetic word but above all by means of daily prophetic action.

8. Concluding Note

In conclusion, I would like to thank Andrea Tornielli for this book,
which contributes to a better understanding of the luminous apostolic
action of the figure of the Servant of God Pius XII.

This is a useful service to the Church, a useful service of truth. It is
right to discuss, delve into, debate, confront. But it is important that
one guard oneself against the gravest error of the historian, that is,
anachronism, judging the reality of that time with the eyes and
mentality of today.

How profoundly unjust it is to judge the work of Pius XII during the war
with the veil of prejudice, forgetting not only the historical context
but also the enormous work of charity that the Pope promoted, opening
the doors of seminaries and religious institutes, welcoming refugees and
persecuted people, helping all.